


Phantom touches

by ozuttly



Category: GARO: Gold Storm Sho, GARO: Yami o Terasu Mono
Genre: F/F, F/M, Open to Interpretation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-12 03:43:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20147680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ozuttly/pseuds/ozuttly
Summary: Rian doesn’t sleep well, after everything that’s happened.





	Phantom touches

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snakelesbians](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snakelesbians/gifts).

Rian doesn’t sleep well, after everything that’s happened. 

When she and Ryuga begin their journey together, she spends the nights they aren’t hunting horrors sitting under the stars, watching. Waiting for something, but she doesn’t know what. 

Or maybe she does know what, but it doesn’t matter, because it’s not something that’s ever going to happen. Enhou will never come back to her, no matter how many nights she stays up waiting, hoping, grieving. She’ll never get to say what she wants to say to her, never get to apologize for not being able to save her. And yet still, she waits. 

Ryuga sits with her, sometimes. Right now, he sits beside her on the edge of a roof in Line city, his knee pressed against hers and radiating warmth. His hand is beside hers on the rooftop, their fingers not quite touching. His presence is grounding, and these nights are always the easiest to get through, knowing that he’s there. 

“It wasn’t your fault, you know,” he says, so softly that she almost doesn’t hear him, so different from his normal tone that she doubts her hearing anyways. 

Rian looks back at him, tilting her head innocently to the side as though she doesn’t understand. In truth, she doesn’t want to have this conversation. She doesn’t want Ryuga to have to comfort her for her failures, when he’s gone through so much himself. He killed his own mother, and Rian doesn’t want to be so weak that she needs him to hold her hand when he’s going through that. 

She should be the one to comfort him, and yet. 

“I don’t know what you mean,” she says, and Ryuga just smiles softly at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling and the edge of his mouth twitching upwards with just a hint of fond exasperation. He doesn’t look like himself. Or he does, but he also looks like--

“You do so,” he says, his fingers moving in to intertwine with hers. Her breath catches in her throat, and he leans in close, his lips pressing chastely against her forehead. “And it wasn’t your fault. None of it. I’m not asking you to forget, but you need to forgive yourself, Rian.” 

He sounds like her. Like her voice is juxtaposed over his own, and when she looks at him, for an instant, she sees an image of long hair, of a leather jacket. 

“En--” she begins, but Ryuga places his finger over her lips, sealing them. He smiles again, and she can feel tears gathering in the corners of her eyes even as she tries desperately to stop them. Before she can stop herself, she tumbles into his arms, clinging tightly to him, a litany of ‘I’m so sorry’ falling from her lips as she presses them against his. 

It’s as if touching him breaks the spell, and he jolts a little when her arms go around him. 

“Rian?” he asks, a little worried, as though she hadn’t just kissed him out of nowhere. As though the last few minutes hadn’t happened, and she wonders, maybe, if they were even real. Or if maybe…

“Please,” she says quietly, her voice hardly above a croaked whisper. “Just let me stay like this for a little bit.” 

He blinks, and had she not had her face buried in his shoulder, she imagines that he might look a bit confused. But then his arms are wrapping around her, firm and confident, and she feels safe. She can always count on Ryuga to be able to ground her. 

“Of course,” he says, and the softness is gone from his voice, replaced by his usual confidence. “you can always rely on me, Rian, as long as you need.” 

She shouldn’t rely on him, though. She really, really shouldn’t, because they’re partners, they support each other. 

And yet.

She scoots closer, resting her chin on top of his shoulder, and when she opens her eyes, she thinks that she can feel a phantom thumb against her cheek, wiping away her tears. 

Just like Enhou, it’s gone before she can even realize it.

**Author's Note:**

> I kind of combined two of your prompts there, so I hope that's ok!


End file.
